Impact of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Changes on Carbon Stocks and Economic Implications in Calabria Using Google Earth Engine (GEE).

Terrestrial ecosystems play a crucial role in global carbon cycling by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and storing it primarily in living biomass and soil. Monitoring terrestrial carbon stocks is essential for understanding the impacts of changes in land use on carbon sequestration. This study investigates the potential of remote sensing techniques and the Google Earth Engine to map and monitor changes in the forests of Calabria (Italy) over the past two decades.

Designing and Testing an IoT Low-Cost PPP-RTK Augmented GNSS Location Device.

Nowadays, the availability of affordable multi-constellation multi-frequency receivers has broadened access to accurate positioning. The abundance of satellite signals coupled with the implementation of ground- and satellite-based correction services has unlocked the potential for achieving real-time centimetre-level positioning with low-cost instrumentation. Most of the current and future applications cannot exploit well-consolidated satellite positioning techniques such as Network Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and Precise Point Positioning (PPP); the former is inapplicable for large user bases due to the necessity of a two-way communication link between the user and the NRTK service provider, while the latter necessitates long convergence times that are not in keeping with kinematic application.

Unveiling the Dynamics of Thermal Characteristics Related to LULC Changes via ANN.

Continuous and unplanned urbanization, combined with negative alterations in land use land cover (LULC), leads to a deterioration of the urban thermal environment and results in various adverse ecological effects. The changes in LULC and thermal characteristics have significant implications for the economy, climate patterns, and environmental sustainability. This study focuses on the Province of Naples in Italy, examining LULC changes and the Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) from 1990 to 2022, predicting their distributions for 2030.

Low-Cost GNSS and PPP-RTK: Investigating the Capabilities of the u-blox ZED-F9P Module.

GNSS has become ubiquitous in high-precision applications, although the cost of high-end GNSS receivers remains a major obstacle for many applications. Recent advances in GNSS receiver technology have led to the development of low-cost GNSS receivers, making high-precision positioning available to a wider range of users. One such technique for achieving high-precision positioning is Precise Point Positioning-Real Time Kinematic (PPP-RTK).

Observation Quality Assessment and Performance of GNSS Standalone Positioning with Code Pseudoranges of Dual-Frequency Android Smartphones.

The new generation of Android smartphones is equipped with GNSS chips capable of tracking multi-frequency and multi-constellation data. In this work, we evaluate the positioning performance and analyze the quality of observations collected by three recent smartphones, namely Xiaomi Mi 8, Xiaomi Mi 9, and Huawei P30 pro that take advantage of such chips. The analysis of the GNSS observation quality implies that the commonly employed elevation-dependent function is not optimal for smartphone GNSS observation weighting and suggests an application of the C/N0-dependent one.

Signal in Space Error and Ephemeris Validity Time Evaluation of Milena and Doresa Galileo Satellites.

In August 2016, Milena (E14) and Doresa (E18) satellites started to broadcast ephemeris in navigation message for testing purposes. If these satellites could be used, an improvement in the position accuracy would be achieved. A small error in the ephemeris would impact the accuracy of positioning up to ±2.

Nitrate trends in groundwater of the Campania region (southern Italy).

The Environmental Protection Agency of the Campania region in Italy (ARPAC) manages a groundwater quality monitoring network. For almost all the polluted waters, the key parameter driving the classification is the concentration of nitrate; hence, the Campania region, in coherence with the EU regulations, outlined the vulnerable areas and undertook remediation policies. The best groundwater quality is recorded for carbonate aquifers of the Apennine chain; on the contrary, the Tyrrhenian coastal plains are affected by severe contamination, with a locally very contaminated groundwater of the shallow and also the deeper aquifers.

Benefits of combined GPS/GLONASS with low-cost MEMS IMUs for vehicular urban navigation.

The integration of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) has been very actively researched for many years due to the complementary nature of the two systems. In particular, during the last few years the integration with micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMUs) has been investigated. In fact, recent advances in MEMS technology have made possible the development of a new generation of low cost inertial sensors characterized by small size and light weight, which represents an attractive option for mass-market applications such as vehicular and pedestrian navigation.

Primary structure of water buffalo alpha-lactalbumin variants A and B.

A novel electrophoretic alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-la) variant was detected in the Italian water buffalo breed. The isoelectric point of the variant, labelled A, was lower than the most frequent variant B. It presented an allelic frequency of 0.